Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, December 12, 2021
through
Saturday, December 18, 2021
__________________________________________________________
It’s Saturday, December 18, 2021
Welcome to the 1,300th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
______________________________________
Lead Picture*
Christmas pudding Aflame
Many traditions enjoy dessert after the main course.
Here, a Christmas pudding is set aflame after brandy has been poured on it.
Ed g2s - Own work
A Christmas pudding being flamed
______________________________________
Commentary
Why? Not that America is perfect, but it is pretty damn great.
Why? Why Jan 6?
What is wrong with these people?
Overthrow American democracy?
Makes you want to swear.
Likely they are also anti-vaxxers.
Why Jan 6?
Makes you want to study their brains.
_____________________________________
Reading and Writing
My reading has suffered recently but my writing has not.
______________________________________
Chuckles and Thought
Do not let making a living prevent you
from making a life."
~John Wooden
_____________________________________
Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
Lots of conversations around the trip to NYC.
In particular, the eating will be first class.
Blog meister responds: The highlight of the trip for me, culinarily speaking, is the omakase Mino and I will share on Friday evening.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
I have been looking forward to replace some of my meat intake with fish. And these days of Christmas will do that. Wednesday night I had sushi. Thursday I am planning a fish dinner. Friday is an omakase. Then a few days unplanned yet until Christmas when I plan to have sushi at Zuma’s at he Four Seasons.
____________________________________
Pictures with Captions from our community**
Sons Chris and Dom and niece Stephanie
__________________________________
Short Essay*
Christmas dinner is a meal traditionally eaten at Christmas. This meal can take place any time from the evening of Christmas Eve to the evening of Christmas Day itself. The meals are often particularly rich and substantial, in the tradition of the Christian feast day celebration, and form a significant part of gatherings held to celebrate the arrival of Christmastide. In many cases, there is a ritual element to the meal related to the religious celebration, such as the saying of grace.
The actual meal consumed varies in different parts of the world with regional cuisines and local traditions. In many parts of the world, particularly former British colonies, the meal shares some connection with the English Christmas dinner involving roasted meats and pudding of some description. The Christmas pudding and Christmas cake evolved from this tradition.
In countries without a lengthy Christian tradition, the Christmas meal may be more heavily influenced by popular culture. An example of this is Japan, where a KFC order is traditionally consumed.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Friday, December 17, 2021
Welcome to the 1,299th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
______________________________________
Lead Picture*
A Christmas minstrel playing pipe and tabor
W. F. Dawson - Christmas: Its Origin and Associations, W. F. Dawson, London, Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, E. C., 1902
A Christmas minstrel playing pipe and tabor.
______________________________________
Commentary
I just heard a story of several related family groupings all getting covid. The vaccinated among them experiencing low-impact symptoms, while several of the non-vaccinated, got terrible symptoms. Fortunately, no deaths. But what is it going to take to convince the intransigent to wake up and get your shots?
______________________________________
Reading and Writing
I am writing my manuscript to schedule. Likely a little ahead.
______________________________________
Chuckles and Thoughts
Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.
~Hans Christian Andersen
_____________________________________
Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
Here are a couple of warm responses from Ann H:
LOVE the Yan story - heartwarming!
Ann Heimlicher
Boston Spot-Lite, Inc.
"The Concierge Specialists"
Promoter and Connector
Boston, MA
617-247-0001
visit our website at www.bostonspotlite.com
And this, RE: Lauren’s finding a job.
Wish her a big congrats for me - she is a doll!
Ann
Blog meister responds: Ann thinks the best of everyone.
_____________________________________
Dinner/Food/Recipes
Wednesday night I had dinner with my cousin Lauren.
We had an omakase dinner @ Fugakyu. It was terrific.
Many such facades in Chinatown San Francisco
____________________________________
Pictures with Captions from our community**
San Francisco Façade Plus
__________________________________
Short Essay*
Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or in the case of carols or songs may employ lyrics whose subject matter ranges from the nativity of Jesus Christ, to gift-giving and merrymaking, to cultural figures such as Santa Claus, among other topics. Many songs simply have a winter or seasonal theme, or have been adopted into the canon for other reasons.
While most Christmas songs prior to 1930 were of a traditional religious character, the Great Depression era of the 1930s brought a stream of songs of American origin, most of which did not explicitly reference the Christian nature of the holiday, but rather the more secular traditional Western themes and customs associated with Christmas. These included songs aimed at children such as "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", as well as sentimental ballad-type songs performed by famous crooners of the era, such as "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "White Christmas", the latter of which remains the best-selling single of all time as of 2018. Elvis' Christmas Album (1957) by Elvis Presley is the best-selling Christmas album of all time, selling more than 20 million copies worldwide.
Performances of Christmas music at public concerts, in churches, at shopping malls, on city streets, and in private gatherings is an integral staple of the Christmas holiday in many cultures across the world. Radio stations often convert to a 24-7 Christmas music format leading up to the holiday, starting sometimes as early as the day after Halloween – as part of a phenomenon known as "Christmas creep".
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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It’s Thursday, December 16, 2021
Welcome to the 1,298th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
______________________________________
Lead Picture*
West Side Story
This is a poster for West Side Story. The poster art copyright is believed to belong to the distributor of the film, 20th Century Studios, the publisher of the film or the graphic artist.
http://www.impawards.com/2021/west_side_story_ver6.html
______________________________________
Commentary
Lauren got a job!
Lauren is my cousin who three years ago decided that, after ten years, decided to return to college. She enrolled at UMass Boston, majoring in chemistry. She took my daughter Katherine’s room (Kat had started college at Swarthmore in Pennsylvania.) and spent twelve consecutive months living with me and working amazingly long hours. She graduated with a 4.0 in her major.
Unfortunately, she graduated into the job market in the teeth of the pandemic and no-jobs. But she preserved and kept applying. Two years after graduation, it happened: she got a job! A good job in the career of her choice. She starts on Jan 3. Will report here.
______________________________________
Reading and Writing
I am on schedule in my writing.
______________________________________
Chuckles and Thoughts
May you live all the days of your life.
~Jonathan Swift
_____________________________________
Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from Tucker J:
“I wrote a little something.”
Blog meister responds: See the brilliant piece just below: Short Essay.
_____________________________________
Dinner/Food/Recipes
Tuesday I made and ate a hamburger for dinner.
I seasoned the meat with a raw egg to which I added Romano cheese, salt, pepper, and fresh parsley. Then I seared/broiled it.
On the side, I made a salad of lettuce, tomato, avocado, and red onion dressed with olive oil and champagne vinegar.
I put the burger on a ciabatta square loaf form Iggy’s bakery and put some of the salad on the burger, serving the rest of the salad on the side.
It was delicious.
____________________________________
Pictures with Captions from our community**
winter in Boston is coming
__________________________________
Short Essay*
This is from the desk of Tucker J.
Hasn’t there always been something rather musical about Spielberg’s camera? Even in a dry newspaper procedural like The Post, it glides and pirouettes. And only Hollywood’s eternal Peter Pan could give rampaging dinosaurs an almost balletic grace. To watch his nimble event movies is to see the hint—the glorious shadow play—of an MGM spectacle he’s had in him all this time. It’s thrilling to watch him finally realize that ambition. With West Side Story, a lavish and dynamically orchestrated new adaptation of the timeless musical, Steven Spielberg finally unleashes a new monstrous talent—the song and dance enthusiast who’s been there from the start, tapping his toes behind the scenes of a whole line of extravagant blockbusters.
On the one hand, West Side Story seems like a safe choice for the director’s first official foray into the genre. Jerome Robbins’ rousing stage show, first performed in 1957, remains a towering popular classic of the medium; the songs, courtesy of Leonard Bernstein and the late lyricist Stephen Sondheim, are so beloved by so many that it would be almost impossible not to wring joy from them. Yet in offering his own take on this Broadway staple, Spielberg is also competing with our memories of a quintessential screen version: the epically mounted 1961 adaptation, which swept the Oscars and has conquered hearts for decades. Even for Hollywood’s premier dream weaver, the man behind E.T. and Jaws and Jurassic Park, that’s a tall order.
Spielberg knows better than to reinvent the show. His West Side Story boasts no new songs and only a couple small tweaks to the blueprint of its mythic romance, which transports Romeo & Juliet to the streets of Upper West Side New York circa the 1950s. Here, reformed teenage hoodlum Tony (Ansel Elgort), one-time leader of The Jets, falls in love at first sight with Maria (Rachel Zegler), the younger sister of sworn rival Bernardo (David Alvarez), who’s head of the Puerto Rican gang The Sharks. Those who know the tragic trajectory of the story will nod along to every beat.
Yet Spielberg grabs us immediately; even if you’ve memorized West Side Story, you’ve never seen it through his eyes. The film opens with a sweeping overhead survey of the NYC neighborhood where its plot unfolds, as construction crews tear down old buildings to make room for new ones. Elegantly, persuasively, he foregrounds the forces of gentrification that loom over both sides of a pointless adolescent turf war. The Jets and Sharks are at each other’s throats for territory, but they can’t see that they’re both being muscled out of a city—and maybe a country—that views all of them as basically vermin. Later, Spielberg will underline the shared lot of these warring factions with a striking overhead shot of their shadows converging during a confrontation, merging into one amorphous silhouette of impending calamity.
Working from a new adaptation by playwright Tony Kushner, who punches up the dialogue between the big numbers, Spielberg revels in the opportunity to revive the glamour of a bygone era of Hollywood musicals, all while making some crucial, thoughtful upgrades. Gone, of course, is the whitewashing of the ’61 version. Here, the Puerto Rican characters are all portrayed by Latinx actors. The film goes further in its stabs at cultural authenticity by handing them a flowing mix of English and Spanish dialogue; Spielberg declines to subtitle the latter, reasoning perhaps that audiences who don’t speak both languages will be able to follow the emotional logic of any scene. It’s a bold and pointed choice for a big Hollywood movie—the kind only a filmmaker with Spielberg’s unlimited clout and industry capital could insist upon.
The elephant in the room is West Side Story’s leading man. Last summer, Elgort was accused of sexually assaulting a minor—a scandal that casts an uncomfortable shadow over the puppy-love courtship of the film, which finished shooting before the accusations broke. Looking beyond that controversy, Elgort may be the movie-star weak link in a cast of mostly upstarts and unknowns. He does bring a certain appropriately moody, simmering attitude to the role; this is the rare incarnation of Tony that actually convinces as someone with a violent past. But he never conveys the full breadth of the character’s blooming infatuation. From his lips, “Maria” is merely a gorgeous earworm, not the expressive Broadway ballad to beat them all.
The rest of the cast picks up the slack, though. Zegler, a YouTube celebrity making her big-screen debut, is radiantly innocent—in her starry-eyed naivete, we can see glimmers of the show’s tragic upshot, a vision of children rushing too fast out of childhood. Ariana DeBose offers a rainbow of conflicting emotions as Sharks moll Anita, her brassy confidence shattering into heartbreak. The performance suffers only in comparison to the turn of her predecessor in the same role, Rita Moreno, who brings a wearied wisdom to this new version in the newly created part of Tony’s shopkeeper boss and mentor. Best in show might be Broadway star Mike Faist as Jets honcho Riff—an electrifying rendition of sarcastic teenage bravado masking desperation.
Of course, the real star here is the staging, a balm for an age of lead-footed Broadway translations. Spielberg races around his dancers, mirroring the physicality of Justin Peck’s choreography through the ecstatic slide and swing of his craft. Some numbers use signature virtuosic long takes to privilege a clear vantage on the spectacle, while others miraculously crosscut across time and space without slicing the action into ribbons. He films portions of “Tonight” through the bars of a fire escape, emphasizing the barriers between Tony and Maria. “Cool,” maybe the most radically reconceived set piece, becomes a game of keep away with a loaded gun. Not every choice tops the original’s: Moving the central lovers’ first meeting behind the gym bleachers is no patch on how Robert Wise eccentrically stopped time on the dancefloor. But even here, you can admire the sparkle of Janusz Kamiński’s typically luminous cinematography—the brilliant glimmers of light cutting through the cracks in the bleachers.
Spielberg knows, too, not to mess with the songs. There is no improving upon this soundtrack—the undiminished chills provoked by some of Broadway’s greatest showtunes. Is there a bum note among them? Just to hear these rousing anthems on the big screen again is a pleasure that doesn’t need complicating. Still, you can hear how they might resonate with Spielberg. Doesn’t the ambivalence of “America,” a hilarious duet on the promise and the lie of the Land Of Opportunity, align rather neatly with his ongoing investigation of national values and virtues? For all its dreamy night-out escapism, West Side Story is a perfect choice for an artist whose status as “America’s hitmaker” has always been more complicated than the twinkly surfaces of his crowd-pleasers might suggest.
What he’s ultimately delivered is a reverently faithful production, putting on West Side Story with panache and a sensibility that teeters, impressively, between classical and modern. He’s made the show his own while staying true to its rich emotional palette, its joy and melancholy; this is still the story, big as legend, of bright young dreamers caught in a preordained spiral of prejudice and loss. Can it compete with the last screen version? Maybe not—that adaptation, for all its outdated qualities, has earned its eternal grip on the imaginations of moviegoers. But there’s room for another, especially one so respectful of what makes the material sing, and so useful as a platform for a great director looking to finally, majestically check a genre box off his list.
Tucker Johnson
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
__________________________________________________________
It’s Thursday, December 16, 2021
Welcome to the 1,298th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
_____________________________________
Lead Picture*
West Side Story
This is a poster for West Side Story. The poster art copyright is believed to belong to the distributor of the film, 20th Century Studios, the publisher of the film or the graphic artist.
http://www.impawards.com/2021/west_side_story_ver6.html
_____________________________________
Commentary
Lauren got a job!
Lauren is my cousin who three years ago decided that, after ten years, decided to return to college. She enrolled at UMass Boston, majoring in chemistry. She took my daughter Katherine’s room (Kat had started college at Swarthmore in Pennsylvania.) and spent twelve consecutive months living with me and working amazingly long hours. She graduated with a 4.0 in her major.
Unfortunately, she graduated into the job market in the teeth of the pandemic and no-jobs. But she preserved and kept applying. Two years after graduation, it happened: she got a job! A good job in the career of her choice. She starts on Jan 3. Will report here.
______________________________________
Reading and Writing
I am on schedule in my writing.
______________________________________
Chuckles and Thoughts
May you live all the days of your life.
~Jonathan Swift
_____________________________________
Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from Tucker J:
“I wrote a little something.”
Blog meister responds: See the brilliant piece just below: Short Essay. Tucker just gets better and better.
_____________________________________
Dinner/Food/Recipes
Tuesday I made and ate a hamburger for dinner.
I seasoned the meat with a raw egg to which I added Romano cheese, salt, pepper, and fresh parsley. Then I seared/broiled it.
On the side, I made a salad of lettuce, tomato, avocado, and red onion dressed with olive oil and champagne vinegar.
I put the burger on a ciabatta square loaf form Iggy’s bakery and put some of the salad on the burger, serving the rest of the salad on the side.
It was delicious.
____________________________________
Pictures with Captions from our community**
winter in Boston is coming
__________________________________
Short Essay*
This is from the desk of Tucker J.
Hasn’t there always been something rather musical about Spielberg’s camera? Even in a dry newspaper procedural like The Post, it glides and pirouettes. And only Hollywood’s eternal Peter Pan could give rampaging dinosaurs an almost balletic grace. To watch his nimble event movies is to see the hint—the glorious shadow play—of an MGM spectacle he’s had in him all this time. It’s thrilling to watch him finally realize that ambition. With West Side Story, a lavish and dynamically orchestrated new adaptation of the timeless musical, Steven Spielberg finally unleashes a new monstrous talent—the song and dance enthusiast who’s been there from the start, tapping his toes behind the scenes of a whole line of extravagant blockbusters.
On the one hand, West Side Story seems like a safe choice for the director’s first official foray into the genre. Jerome Robbins’ rousing stage show, first performed in 1957, remains a towering popular classic of the medium; the songs, courtesy of Leonard Bernstein and the late lyricist Stephen Sondheim, are so beloved by so many that it would be almost impossible not to wring joy from them. Yet in offering his own take on this Broadway staple, Spielberg is also competing with our memories of a quintessential screen version: the epically mounted 1961 adaptation, which swept the Oscars and has conquered hearts for decades. Even for Hollywood’s premier dream weaver, the man behind E.T. and Jaws and Jurassic Park, that’s a tall order.
Spielberg knows better than to reinvent the show. His West Side Story boasts no new songs and only a couple small tweaks to the blueprint of its mythic romance, which transports Romeo & Juliet to the streets of Upper West Side New York circa the 1950s. Here, reformed teenage hoodlum Tony (Ansel Elgort), one-time leader of The Jets, falls in love at first sight with Maria (Rachel Zegler), the younger sister of sworn rival Bernardo (David Alvarez), who’s head of the Puerto Rican gang The Sharks. Those who know the tragic trajectory of the story will nod along to every beat.
Yet Spielberg grabs us immediately; even if you’ve memorized West Side Story, you’ve never seen it through his eyes. The film opens with a sweeping overhead survey of the NYC neighborhood where its plot unfolds, as construction crews tear down old buildings to make room for new ones. Elegantly, persuasively, he foregrounds the forces of gentrification that loom over both sides of a pointless adolescent turf war. The Jets and Sharks are at each other’s throats for territory, but they can’t see that they’re both being muscled out of a city—and maybe a country—that views all of them as basically vermin. Later, Spielberg will underline the shared lot of these warring factions with a striking overhead shot of their shadows converging during a confrontation, merging into one amorphous silhouette of impending calamity.
Working from a new adaptation by playwright Tony Kushner, who punches up the dialogue between the big numbers, Spielberg revels in the opportunity to revive the glamour of a bygone era of Hollywood musicals, all while making some crucial, thoughtful upgrades. Gone, of course, is the whitewashing of the ’61 version. Here, the Puerto Rican characters are all portrayed by Latinx actors. The film goes further in its stabs at cultural authenticity by handing them a flowing mix of English and Spanish dialogue; Spielberg declines to subtitle the latter, reasoning perhaps that audiences who don’t speak both languages will be able to follow the emotional logic of any scene. It’s a bold and pointed choice for a big Hollywood movie—the kind only a filmmaker with Spielberg’s unlimited clout and industry capital could insist upon.
The elephant in the room is West Side Story’s leading man. Last summer, Elgort was accused of sexually assaulting a minor—a scandal that casts an uncomfortable shadow over the puppy-love courtship of the film, which finished shooting before the accusations broke. Looking beyond that controversy, Elgort may be the movie-star weak link in a cast of mostly upstarts and unknowns. He does bring a certain appropriately moody, simmering attitude to the role; this is the rare incarnation of Tony that actually convinces as someone with a violent past. But he never conveys the full breadth of the character’s blooming infatuation. From his lips, “Maria” is merely a gorgeous earworm, not the expressive Broadway ballad to beat them all.
The rest of the cast picks up the slack, though. Zegler, a YouTube celebrity making her big-screen debut, is radiantly innocent—in her starry-eyed naivete, we can see glimmers of the show’s tragic upshot, a vision of children rushing too fast out of childhood. Ariana DeBose offers a rainbow of conflicting emotions as Sharks moll Anita, her brassy confidence shattering into heartbreak. The performance suffers only in comparison to the turn of her predecessor in the same role, Rita Moreno, who brings a wearied wisdom to this new version in the newly created part of Tony’s shopkeeper boss and mentor. Best in show might be Broadway star Mike Faist as Jets honcho Riff—an electrifying rendition of sarcastic teenage bravado masking desperation.
Of course, the real star here is the staging, a balm for an age of lead-footed Broadway translations. Spielberg races around his dancers, mirroring the physicality of Justin Peck’s choreography through the ecstatic slide and swing of his craft. Some numbers use signature virtuosic long takes to privilege a clear vantage on the spectacle, while others miraculously crosscut across time and space without slicing the action into ribbons. He films portions of “Tonight” through the bars of a fire escape, emphasizing the barriers between Tony and Maria. “Cool,” maybe the most radically reconceived set piece, becomes a game of keep away with a loaded gun. Not every choice tops the original’s: Moving the central lovers’ first meeting behind the gym bleachers is no patch on how Robert Wise eccentrically stopped time on the dancefloor. But even here, you can admire the sparkle of Janusz Kamiński’s typically luminous cinematography—the brilliant glimmers of light cutting through the cracks in the bleachers.
Spielberg knows, too, not to mess with the songs. There is no improving upon this soundtrack—the undiminished chills provoked by some of Broadway’s greatest showtunes. Is there a bum note among them? Just to hear these rousing anthems on the big screen again is a pleasure that doesn’t need complicating. Still, you can hear how they might resonate with Spielberg. Doesn’t the ambivalence of “America,” a hilarious duet on the promise and the lie of the Land Of Opportunity, align rather neatly with his ongoing investigation of national values and virtues? For all its dreamy night-out escapism, West Side Story is a perfect choice for an artist whose status as “America’s hitmaker” has always been more complicated than the twinkly surfaces of his crowd-pleasers might suggest.
What he’s ultimately delivered is a reverently faithful production, putting on West Side Story with panache and a sensibility that teeters, impressively, between classical and modern. He’s made the show his own while staying true to its rich emotional palette, its joy and melancholy; this is still the story, big as legend, of bright young dreamers caught in a preordained spiral of prejudice and loss. Can it compete with the last screen version? Maybe not—that adaptation, for all its outdated qualities, has earned its eternal grip on the imaginations of moviegoers. But there’s room for another, especially one so respectful of what makes the material sing, and so useful as a platform for a great director looking to finally, majestically check a genre box off his list.
Tucker Johnson
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
__________________________________________________________
It’s Wednesday, December 15, 2021
Welcome to the 1,297th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
______________________________________
Lead Picture*
A Christmas tree in a public space.
François Rejeté - originally posted to Flickr as Christmas tree in marunouchi
______________________________________
Commentary
Last week I reported that my homeless friend Yan found me having coffee and brought me a package of crackers, stopping me with her hands from reaching for my wallet. I’ve seen her several times since, and each time, after I handed her lunch money, she has reached into her bag and pulled out a package of crackers. So our relationship has changed. She has opened up a Pop Up store in which I may purchase a package of crackers. She has gained self-respect.
Caregivers who put down their children make me sick. Every child is royalty and should be told that from as soon as they can understand.
______________________________________
Reading and Writing
I am on seventeen of sixty pages
in the fourth and last section of the manuscript.
______________________________________
Chuckles and Thoughts
Life is really simple,
but we insist on making it complicated.
~Confucius
_____________________________________
Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from Ann H:
You should enjoy Zuma.
I've been 3 times and each time was delightful!
Xo
Blog meister responds: I should note that Ann is a generous person.
_____________________________________
Dinner/Food/Recipes
Monday’s dinner was a pizza from Regina Pizza. It was delicious.
Tucker J was with me.
He had come into town to help with a technical issue.
It was resolved.
He had a pepperoni and I had half anchovy and half peppers and onions.
___________________________________
Pictures with Captions from our community**
New Orleans Musical Legends Park
Taken during the autotrip that gave rise to this blog,
just a day or two away from 1300 consecutive posts.
________________________________
Short Essay*
The Christmas season, also called the holiday season (often simply called the holidays),or the festive season, is an annually recurring period recognized in many Western and other countries that is generally considered to run from late November to early January.
It is defined as incorporating at least Christmas Day, New Year's Day, and sometimes various other holidays and festivals. It also is associated with a period of shopping which comprises a peak season for the retail sector (the "Christmas (or holiday) shopping season") and a period of sales at the end of the season (the "January sales"). Christmas window displays and Christmas tree lighting ceremonies when trees decorated with ornaments and light bulbs are illuminated are traditions in many areas.
In the denominations of Western Christianity, the term "Christmas season" is considered synonymous with Christmastide, which runs from December 25 (Christmas Day) to January 5 (Twelfth Night or Epiphany Eve), popularly known as the 12 Days of Christmas, or in the Catholic Church, until the Baptism of the Lord, a Christmas season which can last for more or fewer than twelve days. As the economic impact involving the anticipatory lead-up to Christmas Day grew in America and Europe into the 19th and 20th centuries, the term "Christmas season" began to become synonymous instead with the liturgical Christian Advent season, the period observed in Western Christianity from the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day until Christmas Eve. The term "Advent calendar" continues to be widely known in Western parlance as a term referring to a countdown to Christmas Day from the beginning of December, although in retail the countdown to Christmas usually begins at the end of the summer season, and beginning of September.
Beginning in the mid-20th century, as the Christian-associated Christmas holiday and liturgical season, in some circles, became increasingly commercialized and central to American economics and culture while religio-multicultural sensitivity rose, generic references to the season that omitted the word "Christmas" became more common in the corporate and public sphere of the United States, which has caused a semantics controversy that continues to the present. By the late 20th century, the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah and the new African American cultural holiday of Kwanzaa began to be considered in the U.S. as being part of the "holiday season", a term that as of 2013 had become equally or more prevalent than "Christmas season" in U.S. sources to refer to the end-of-the-year festive period. "Holiday season" has also spread in varying degrees to Canada; however, in the United Kingdom and Ireland, the phrase "holiday season" is not widely synonymous with the Christmas–New Year period, and is often instead associated with summer holidays.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
__________________________________________________________
It’s Tuesday, December 14, 2021
Welcome to the 1,296th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
______________________________________
Lead Picture*
Glade jul
Glade jul by Viggo Johansen (1891)
Viggo Johansen - The Skagen Painters: "Silent Night"
______________________________________
Commentary
Wednesday begins an eight-day run of meeting dear friends and family, starting with dinner with my cousin Lauren, three-days in NYC with my son Mino and his family and with my daughter Katherine and boyfriend William. Monday with my friend James, and Wednesday with my son Dom and family and our friend Cindy. Then, Thurs, Fri, and Sat, Christmas Day, I am alone. I will enjoy every part of the season. Oh, Christmas Day I have reservations at Zuma, the relatively new Japanese restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel.
______________________________________
Reading and Writing
On Sunday I finished organizing the last forty pages of the manuscript. They are now ready for rewrite.
Staying on my Jan 15 schedule.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling,
but in rising every time we fall.
~Nelson Mandela
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from Sally C:
Dear Dom,
Regarding the tree you photographed, that you pass by every day: is it a dawn redwood? Does it have evergreen-like needles in the warm seasons? The tapering trunk resembles the trees around the pond in Andover where I worked. I was puzzled by them. They looked like evergreens but, like tamaracks, shed their needles in the fall. They also produce small, round, spiky “cones.” A botanist friend told me they were dawn redwoods.
Sally
Blog meister responds: It is a dawn redwood. Well-done, Sally.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
For dinner on Sunday I had an omelet. It did not rise for me as it usually does. Perhaps because I added too much heavy cream. It still tasted fine but the texture left something to be desired.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
I forget the name of this New Orleans place, but the best beignet in the country.
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Short Essay*
A Christmas tree is a decorated tree, usually an evergreen conifer, such as a fir, spruce, or pine, or an artificial tree of similar appearance, associated with the celebration of Christmas, originating in Germany associated with Saint Boniface. The custom was developed in medieval Livonia (present-day Estonia and Latvia), and in early modern Germany where German Protestant Christians brought decorated trees into their homes. It acquired popularity beyond the Lutheran areas of Germany and the Baltic governorates during the second half of the 19th century, at first among the upper classes.
The tree was traditionally decorated with "roses made of colored paper, apples, wafers, tinsel, [and] sweetmeats". Moravian Christians began to illuminate Christmas trees with candles, which were often replaced by Christmas lights after the advent of electrification. Today, there is a wide variety of traditional and modern ornaments, such as garlands, baubles, tinsel, and candy canes. An angel or star might be placed at the top of the tree to represent the Angel Gabriel or the Star of Bethlehem, respectively, from the Nativity. Edible items such as gingerbread, chocolate, and other sweets are also popular and are tied to or hung from the tree's branches with ribbons. The Catholic Church had long resisted this custom of the Lutheran Church and the Vatican Christmas tree stood for the first time in Vatican City in 1982.
In the Western Christian tradition, Christmas trees are variously erected on days such as the first day of Advent or even as late as Christmas Eve depending on the country; customs of the same faith hold that the two traditional days when Christmas decorations, such as the Christmas tree, are removed are Twelfth Night and, if they are not taken down on that day, Candlemas, the latter of which ends the Christmas-Epiphany season in some denominations.
The Christmas tree is sometimes compared with the "Yule-tree", especially in discussions of its folkloric origins
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Monday, December 13, 2021
Welcome to the 1,295th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Promotional booklet cover of the original story by Robert L. May
http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/rudolph.asp
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Commentary
Omicron appears to be a refreshed onslaught on our physical health. It is incumbent on us to redouble our precautions. Incumbent for us all to get the booster shot. Wear masks. Wash hands.
It appears my winter schedule is resolved. Instead of two trips out a day, four and a half hours in the morning and one and a half hours in the evening, I make a single but longer trip hour, starting out at 8.30am and returning at 1.30pm. Five hours once a day v six hours twice a day.
Why?
The winter cold and the early dark are too forbidding. I leave in the light and return in the light.
I like to tan during the winter months. Since I don’t live in Miami, I depend on tanning machines. I recently scouted prices and tanning salons around are very expensive.
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Reading and Writing
I worked out a major problem with the ending of my manuscript and received some wonderful comments on the leukemia moments in the manuscript.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams!
Live the life you've imagined.
~Henry David Thoreau
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
Today’s chief conversation was a series of emails from a dear friend who answered a myriad of questions about the treatment of leukemia.
Blog meister responds: I’d be lost without his help.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Saturday night I hosted dinner for my dear friends, Mike and Cathy. Fortunately it was a three-course meal because the opener, a roasted eggplant, left something to be desired. It looked very good until I decided another 60 seconds under the broiler was in order. It wasn’t. The broiler loved the honey in the dressing on the eggplant and turned it black.
The second course was predictably delicious: Cheese Ravioli with Marinara Sauce.
The success of the menu depended on the third course: my first Pot Roast.
And here I was making it for Cathy who grew up on Pot Roast and an expert.
I waited for her first bite. She liked it.
It was indeed very good.
Besides the food, the conversation including the catching-up, was terrific.
I pass this tree daily.
I love it.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Tree in Public Garden
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Short Essay*
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a fictional reindeer created by Robert Lewis May. Rudolph is usually depicted as the ninth and youngest of Santa Claus's reindeer, using his luminous red nose to lead the reindeer team and guide Santa's sleigh on Christmas Eve. Though he initially receives ridicule for his nose as a fawn, the brightness of his nose is so powerful that it illuminates the team's path through harsh winter weather. Ronald D. Lankford, Jr., described Rudolph's story as "the fantasy story made to order for American children: each child has the need to express and receive approval for his or her individuality and/or special qualities. Rudolph's story embodies the American Dream for the child, written large because of the cultural significance of Christmas."
Rudolph first appeared in a 1939 booklet written by Robert L. May and published by Montgomery Ward, the department store.
The story is owned by The Rudolph Company, LP and has been adapted and shaped in numerous forms including Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (song) by Johnny Marks, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (TV special), Rudolph's Shiny New Year, and Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July from Rankin/Bass Productions, as well as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys from GoodTimes Entertainment. Character Arts, LLC manages the licensing for the Rudolph Company, LP. In many countries, Rudolph has become a figure of Christmas folklore. 2014 marked the 75th anniversary of the character and the 50th anniversary of the Rankin/Bass television special. A series of postage stamps featuring Rudolph was issued by the United States Postal Service on November 6, 2014.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Sunday, December 12, 2021
Welcome to the 1,294th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman Monument
by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, New York City, after the January 2016 United States blizzard.
King of Hearts - Own work
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Commentary
Don’t be afraid of Covid. Get vaccinated. Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Due diligence will get us through safely. In a year, it will be behind us.
Don’t be angry at Covid. Although we paid mightily for the education, we’ve learned lessons that will stay with us for centuries to come.
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Reading and Writing
The final section of the book is engaged. Two important conversations with people close to me are raging concerning the devil’s followers and leukemia. These will take several days to resolve and incorporate into the manuscript. Then I can begin the rewrite. January 15 is the date from which I can predict when the manuscript will be far enough along the editing process to make it possible to predict when it will be ready to submit.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
Live in the sunshine,
swim the sea,
drink the wild air.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
Today’s chief conversation was a phone call centered on leukemia, including a person close who has fought it and won.
Blog meister responds: God bless.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Friday night I gathered three pieces of leftover meat, steak, rib roast, and a lamb chop.
I seared the pieces with peppers, fresh garlic cloves, onions, and a chili pepper in olive oil.
Dinner was delicious and a tasty break from the same old same old leftovers I’ve been eating.
I did experiment with a couple of ravioli with the pot roast gravy. Not very good.
But I have some Marinara Sauce that I’ll serve to my guests tomorrow.
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Community Photos**
Menorah being installed on Boston Common
2020
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Short Essay*
William Tecumseh Sherman, also known as the Sherman Memorial or Sherman Monument, is a sculpture group honoring William Tecumseh Sherman, created by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and located at Grand Army Plaza in Manhattan, New York. Cast in 1902 and dedicated on May 30, 1903, the gilded-bronze monument consists of an equestrian statue of Sherman and an accompanying statue, Victory, an allegorical female figure of the Greek goddess Nike. The statues are set on a Stony Creek granite pedestal designed by the architect Charles Follen McKim.
William Tecumseh Sherman (February 8, 1820 – February 14, 1891) was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865), achieving recognition for his command of military strategy as well as criticism for the harshness of the scorched earth policies that he implemented against the Confederate States. British military theorist and historian B. H. Liddell Hart declared that Sherman was "the first modern general".
*The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Community Pictures with Captions are sent in by our followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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